It was the same Yesha rabbinical council that issued an announcement in 2003 to say that the Palestinians' olive harvest and olive trees must not be damaged, Army Radio reported. The announcement came after reports that settlers had sawed up hundreds of olive trees in the West Bank.Such destroying of the crop is acceptable is in a special case of war, and that can only be decreed by the government, the rabbinical council for the West Bank and Gaza Strip announced.

The council also condemned all vigilante hostility, and said the olive crop-destroyers were bringing a bad name to the settlers and the settlement movement as a whole, according to the radio.